Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The Life of William Shakespeare -- Birth and Parentage -- Education -- Stratford-upon-Avon -- Marriage and Family -- Pretheatre Life -- Career in the Theatre -- Lord Chamberlain's Men -- Private Life -- Early Posthumous Documentation -- The Tributes of His Colleagues -- First Folio -- Anecdotes and Documents -- Chapter 2: Elizabeth I and Late Tudor England -- The Tudor Ideal of Government -- The Great Chain of Being -- Benevolent Paternalism -- The Social Ideal -- Poor Laws and Workhouses -- Elizabethan Society -- Literacy -- Schooling -- The Role of Exploration -- Shakespeare's Place in the Elizabethan World -- The Role of Mary, Queen of Scots -- The Clash with Spain -- Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada -- The Price of Wars -- Internal Discontent -- Fading Glory -- Chapter 3: James I and Early Stuart Times -- Conditions in London and Rural Areas -- Rank and Status -- Government and Society -- The Accession of James I -- Triple Monarchy -- Religious Policy -- Puritans -- Shakespeare's Religious Views -- Chapter 4: The English Language and the Theatre in Shakespeare's Time -- English in Shakespeare's Time -- Old English to Middle English -- From Middle English to the Early Modern English of Shakespeare -- The Rise of London English -- Borrowed from the Classics -- William Caxton -- English to the Restoration -- Shakespeare's Language -- Theatre in England -- Feast of Corpus Christi -- Elizabethan Theatre -- Children's Companies -- Jacobean Theatre -- Shakespeare and the Theatre -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover.